Over the past decade, Jeremy Renner has somewhat quietly become one of the most trusted and dependable actors in Hollywood. In addition to his work in critically acclaimed films like The Hurt Locker and Arrival, you can also find him in countless big budget franchises from Mission: Impossible to Bourne to Avengers.

In Wind River, the actor gives one of the best performances of his career. He takes the torrid past of his character Cory Lambert and wears it like a fire burning him from the inside, resulting in heartbreaking and beautifully understated work from the talented Renner.

Last week, we were lucky enough to catch up with him during the film’s press day and had the chance to talk about his experience making the movie, shooting in extremely cold conditions, his upcoming role in Avengers: Infinity War and much more.

Check it out below, and enjoy!

You give such a beautiful performance in Wind River. Your character Cory is dealing with a lot of demons but it’s that endurance and emotional restraint while that pain is bubbling underneath the surface that really makes the performance so incredible. Can you talk about working on the role?

Jeremy Renner: Yeah, I was just really attracted to the complexity of that character. The initial feeling on set was sort of to discover how to address all those things you just discussed. I thought it was going to be a bit more stoic. I realized very quickly in shooting it and being rational about applying it is that I needed to just do slow trickles of released emotion throughout the picture and then still have a cathartic moment at the end of it.

I just feel like I had to have the strength because the catharsis is in unleashing all the feelings that he’s having. I thought I was going to be better at restraint and having him be much more steel-like and stone-like but it ended up being much more of a slow burn of moments that allowed him to sort of decompress all the pressures that he’s going through.

In new release Wind River, the Hollywood veteran plays the central character. He talks to The National about the film and his career to date.

An encounter with ­Jeremy Renner is an ­intense experience. Like the moment he walks into the room and says he will put his phone down next to my recorder to tape our conversation and keep me “honest”.

Even when he’s joking, there’s a serious edge to this ­Hollywood star.

In some ways a throwback to a bygone era, the actor famed for playing Hawkeye in the Marvel films comes equipped with a coiled, muscular physicality. To put it another way, in a fight, you would want to be on Renner’s side. “I’m the last guy you want chasing after you,” he says.

The 46 year-old has a ­fundamental – and very direct – belief system: don’t mess with kids, women or animals, he says.

“Believe whatever God you want to believe in, think whatever you want to think … just don’t do those things and we’re all right. I’ll accept you, I’ll ­tolerate you … and it’s all good. It’s a principle, right? Maybe you agree with it, maybe you don’t.”

Renner’s latest film, Wind River, plays into this, pitting the actor as a character close to home; perhaps the closest to himself he has ever played.

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